Decided to rip the car/engine apart for a freshen up (and to try to get rid of the constant oil smoke haze that I was getting)

Initial plan of action:

Replace the Total SH$T (seal) gapless rings as they are causing oil to be sucked down the valveguides (I have confirmed this during the teardown) and burning resulting in oil smoke

Survey the other parts of the engine/tranny to see how it held up to repeated 7200 rpm blasts

Diagnosis:
1)Rod bearings don't like alot of rpm: they were showing a fair amount of wear on the connecting rod side
2)Intake ports right under the valves were oil soaked (this is where my oil was coming from to get into the combustion chamber)
3)My flycuts were apparently done wrong as some of the valves knicked the pistons just 'above' the flycut (I made the mistake of cutting them with my stock heads as a guide...my new heads are .040 milled so the piston/valve relationship changed..DOH.
4)Checked all 8 intake valves...no bent valves (thank god)
5) Top of pistons looked remarkably clean considering the amount of oil burned in the engine...rings looked good.
6) McLeod REVLOK-II clutch just don't like 7000 rpm. My first one came apart last year and seized to the pressure plate. This new one started cracking at the hub (same mode of failure as the first one)

Changes being made:
1) New rod bearings
2) New Diamond Pro-select piston rings (hope that this will cure the oil problem I had)
3) RAM 910 clutch, RAM 402 Pressure plate and Hays billet steel FW
4) New valve seals (precautionary)

Gonna also flow the heads and CC the combustion chambers to determine my theoretical compression ratio

Bring on the racing season soon
<img border="0" alt="[driving]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_driving3.gif" />

 

Very interesting.. I'm running the same piston rings as you, and have the same oil consumption issue...

DOH!

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Obliviously Obvious:
<strong> Very interesting.. I'm running the same piston rings as you, and have the same oil consumption issue...

DOH! </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I had a few people say the exact same thing...thats why I'm swapping them out

<img border="0" alt="[shoot]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_guns.gif" /> TOTAL SEAL

 

good stuff <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />
The oil getting into the combustion chamber probably caused a lot of detonation hammering your bearings. I am sure it is going to run even better when done!
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />

 

Brian, long time! Sorry to hear about your problems but I figure since your are a rocket scientist <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> this problem should be a piece of cake.

steve <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" />

 

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by SB:
<strong> Brian, long time! Sorry to hear about your problems but I figure since your are a rocket scientist <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" /> this problem should be a piece of cake.

steve <img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_cheers.gif" /> </strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I WAS a rocket scientist <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="gr_grin.gif" /> Now I'm just and Explosives Researcher <img border="0" alt="[angel]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_angel.gif" />

<small>[ April 01, 2003, 03:27 PM: Message edited by: Fireball ]</small>

 

you know...you are probably right. though I never had audible detonation...oil is known to do that (especially with heavily milled 5.3L heads LOL)

The top of the rod bearings were showing copper whereas the bottoms were ok...sounds like detonation to me <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

Keep up the good work! and ditch them damn rings! talk to you soon.

Joe.

 

woohoo...motor is almost ready for reassembly. Gapped all the rings last night went with .018 top ring and .020-.021 on the 2nd ring.

Made it nice that the top rings came in at .018 without any work <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

just took a tiny bit of filing to get to .020 on the 2nd one <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" /> My summit ring filer made an easy task out of that <img border="0" alt="[worship]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_hail.gif" />

the oil control rings design is really neat on the diamond rings too <img border="0" title="" alt="[Wink]" src="gr_images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

Hey Brian, hope you're back on the road again real soon. Let me know if you're planning any dyno pulls in the near future.... <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="gr_images/icons/cool.gif" />

 

update...i was wrong...I had 5 BENT INTAKE VALVES probably bent the first time the motor went over 5K due to PV issues <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />

new intake valves are installed and the heads were flowed <img border="0" title="" alt="[Smile]" src="gr_stretch.gif" />